Third time the charm for Aurora Central

It took an extra day for the calendar to flip to March, not a moment too soon for the Aurora Central boys basketball team.

This is the time of the year Nate Drye’s team lives for. After their run to the NIU supersectional last season, the Chargers got started on the right foot again this postseason against their archrival Marmion Wednesday night at a packed gym in Sandwich.

Big man Robert DeMyers dominated on both ends of the court, point guard Anthony Andujar sliced through the Cadets defense and this time it was the Chargers student section storming the court following Aurora Central’s 68-59 victory.

Despite their 9-17 regular season record, No. 3 seed and two regular season losses to No. 2 Marmion (14-14), it will be the Chargers (10-17) trying to keep their postseason magic alive Friday when they play 20-7 Yorkville for the Class 3A Sandwich regional championship.

“Only one thing to say, we’re playing in March and they aren’t,” DeMyers said. “For our core group we go into these games and we’re confident. Last year we were jittery. Now we know the intensity we need to bring.”

Fans couldn’t find a seat when these teams played in front of standing-room-only crowds twice in the regular season, and the scene was basically the same shifted 30 minutes to the southwest. Aurora Central’s student section was riding Marmion from the 3-point contest to the final buzzer, and as they celebrated on the court with the players Drye saluted the rest of the Charger crowd as he walked to the locker room.

“It is very rewarding,” Drye said. “My team is resilient and has a strong will to win and got it done when they needed to.

“I don’t think we overvalue the regular season. The regular season is a learning process and we don’t get too down about it. We’re under .500 but that’s not the point. We have great faith in what we do.”

Safe to say Aurora Central’s record wouldn’t be what it is if the 6-foot-5 DeMyers had not gone down with a broken fibula at the end of the Plainfield Central game Dec. 6. He missed nine games and said even now he’s only about 90 percent and the bone won’t fully heal until he stays off it for a month.

The Cadets had no answer for him, starting with an 8-point first quarter. He finished with 24 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field and 2 of 2 at the line to go with 10 rebounds, 4 blocked shots and a pair of steals.

“Robert was fabulous tonight,” Drye said. “Words can’t describe how awesome he was. I couldn’t be more proud of him. It was a struggle to come back, there were a lot of valleys but he kept plugging away. He’s a terrific kid, he kept the faith the whole time. What a moment for the kid.”

DeMyers opened the scoring inside, Andujar followed with a step-back jumper and the Chargers were up 4-0 and never looked back. They didn’t trail in the game, opening leads of 16-12 after one quarter and 36-22 at halftime with a dominating second quarter.

Marmion handled the Chargers press for most of the game but turned the ball over 6 times in the second quarter. After Marmion closed within 18-17 the Chargers scored 12 straight points capped by a 4-point play from Andujar.

“He was terrific,” Drye said. “I think he’s the best point guard around. I don’t think they had anyone with the speed to keep up with him. He plays like that we are pretty tough to beat.”

Down 14 at halftime Pete Stefanski single-handedly shot the Cadets back into the game with three straight 3-pointers from nearly the identical spot several feet behind the arc on the left wing. Alex Theisen added a jumper for an 11-0 run that brought the Cadets within 36-33 three minutes into the third quarter.

Aurora Central has lost leads several times this year. This time would be different. DeMyers fought through a double team for a bucket and Zach Flint rattled in a 3 to restore an 8-point lead.

“I thought it was a real show of the character of our team,” Drye said. “It’s been a struggle all year. They kept responding. When he started nailing 3s that’s a serious situation because we’ve lost a lot of leads this year. We just talked about keeping the faith. I’m blessed to have good kids.”

Up 51-45 headed to the fourth, the Chargers stretched their lead to 59-48. Marmion made one last push, trimming the deficit to 59-54 on a 3 from Colin Kavanaugh.

Aurora Central countered hitting 9 of 12 free throws which was more than enough to offset about a 28-foot 3 from Stefanski, his sixth 3 of the game and fifth of the half.

Joe McEachern, another veteran from last year’s supersectional team, added 14 points for the Chargers and Flint’s 7 off the bench helped the Chargers reserves outscore Marmion’s 14-8.

Stefanski’s 18 points led Marmion followed by Kavanaugh with 13 points and 10 rebounds and Ryan Glasgow with 11 points.

Aurora Central outrebounded the Cadets 30-23 and seemed a step quicker to loose balls.

“They always say it’s hard to beat somebody three times in a season but regardless you go in with a great game plan our guys were ready we missed some shots we normally make,” Marmion coach Ryan Paradise said.

“Give them credit, they played hard. I thought the second half we kind of ran out of gas and their guys didn’t. They kept attacking the ball and attacking the glass and we just stalled out.”